E) Day 187- Things are happening

Today was my first pre-chemo screening. It was also an opportunity to meet one of my greatest fears!!
Dr Howson-Jan ( my chemo doctor) was polite but fairly brief as he told me that the area affected by lymphoma was relatively small and that my chemo might be reduced to 3 sessions followed by a treatment of radiation.
   That great piece of news was immediately followed by:  "We'll need to do a bone marrow biopsy to make sure your bone marrow isn't affected." "And when are you planning that??" "NOW".
   At that point I was about ready to run down the hall screaming but he reassured me it wasn't all that bad. Yeah?? A hole in my pelvis and it doesn't hurt. The famously common medical term "this might cause you some slight discomfort" quickly came to mind. For those too young or too healthy to have heard those words, it is "medical-speak" for "this is going to hurt like hell but I really don't care!"
   Actually once the freezing was in it was more pressure than pain and it lasted less than 5 minutes. I never did turn my head to see what instruments of torture were laid out on the sterile drapes beside me. Having watched the Borgias and Game of Thrones of late, I did not need a whole lot of imagination to conjure up the idea of what I was experiencing.
  In all honesty, while the term Bone Marrow Biopsy was close to the top of the all time list of the TEN Medical Procedures I never want done to me, it really wasn't that bad. If you see the other 9 on my list, you will see that I have been through 3 and by the time I'll be done, I will have knocked off at least 6 or 7 on the list. For your info, none involve pulling my bottom lip over the top of my head! ( Carol Burnett's description of childbirth for men!!)
Now at 9 pm my lower back feels like I took a boot with a steel toe but I imagine a tramacet will fix that pretty quickly.
   Chemo is going to start next week. I'm looking forward to that! NOT. But at least its a start.
 Footnote from February- due to the need to co-ordinate my kidney stent replacement with my chemo, the latter was actually delayed a week.